Well if this was the Amazing Race, this would have been one of those “to be continued” episodes.
We had a lot better luck at the forbidden city… aka, it wasn’t closed. It was neat to see, but I wasn’t blown away by it. Tienanmen Square was nice to visit. Impressive, and I am glad to say I have been there… the amount of security in the area is crazy. After we hit the metro/subway to get towards the Summer Palace. Turns out there are two Summer Palaces. One isn’t so impressive… that’s the one we found first. A couple picture of fake cherry blossoms on the trees and we were off to look for the “real/better” one.
When we finally arrived, we were a little taken back. It is an immense area and it was not really clear what everything was. A guide approached us and we took her up on her offer. She was nice, hard to understand, but clearly smart and really into this one Empress. I think Opa would LOVE this place. It might have been my favorite place over all in Beijing. The great wall was exciting because of how famous it is, but the Summer Palace was just beautiful. It takes some work but if you can in your head remove the thousands of tourists, and instead picture what it was like “back in the day” you really cannot help but be even more impressed with the area.
Our guide really wanted to stretch out the tour (plus I think she really really likes everything in the area, and wanted to tell us all the stories of all the pictures, legends, and buildings.) We finally convinced her we were in a rush, and she took us through what i found one of the more beautiful areas really quickly. There were few people around, and it was up in the hill (which was built by dredging the lake by hand.) We cabbed back, had an awesome meal at the Hutong (alleyway) around the hotel, and then had to head off to the night train (and therefore the “to be continued” part)
The train was interesting. Small would be a word to describe it. Also crowded, hot, smoke smelly, and generally speaking something I do not think Marijke would have enjoyed/had the patience for at all 
14 hours later we were in Shanghai. The cabs tried to take us for all we were worth, so we took the metro to Amy’s apartment. Now after some lazing about we are off for some fun times tonight. I suppose that update will need to come later.
Wow…needless to say I did my best to find pictures of all the places you have just been so far. What a great way for me to start my day. For me of course…same old, same old, except that I start Term 3 Fireworks tomorrow…the old dog will be entering the yound dogs arena with some new tricks…I wonder how long it will take them to surpass me
Love you SO much kid. Glad to hear of your adventure. I get so excited to read your blog…it is the first thing I check in the morning.
Enter your comments here…Sounds like you are getting around well despite the language issue. Have you managed to pick up a few words in Chinese yet? I’m glad you managed to get into the Forbidden City and had a good time looking around. This morning they featured a piece on the news about a chocolate display of the terra cotta warriors and other Chinese things in Beijing. Did you see/hear about it?
Waiting for some pictures of all things China.
Wow… you sure are seeing a lot of history up close and personal. It did not sound like it was a lot of fun on the train, but again another impossible to replace experience. Opa would be proud to hear that his good little Canadian Dutch boy is not getting taken advantage of by the cabbies. Let us know if you meet up with Corinna, I am sure that mom would love an update.
Dad
Agreed. Definitely no patience!